CapeFLYER

Cape flyer is the name of the seasonal passenger train in the southeastern area of the state of Massachusetts in the United States, who commutes between Boston and Cape Cod. The remotely comparable to a German regional express train is operated jointly by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority ( CCRTA ) and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ( MBTA ). Owner of the route is the traffic authority Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The train runs only on weekends (Fridays to Sundays ) between the U.S. holidays Memorial Day and Labor Day. Annual operating costs were estimated before operation to just under $ 200,000. It has been the setting of the Cape Codder by Amtrak in 1996, the first regular daily train to Cape Cod and the first connection between the Boston South Station and Cape Cod since 1959 - the Cape Cod and Hyannis Railroad ran a regular service from Braintree to Cape Cod By 1984 until 1988.

The first trip of the Cape Flyer May 24, 2013 was held on Friday instead. During the first five weekends of the operation of the train could carry a little more than 6,000 passengers - 310 people per week are required to record the operating costs.

Operation

The locomotives and wagons are provided by the MBTA available that Unterauftragnehmerin the CCRTA is. The route followed by Boston from the Middleborough / Lakeville Line and leads to the end of the normally used only for rail freight Cape Main Line of the Massachusetts Coastal Railroad further to Hyannis.

In January 2013, the CCRTA announced that the train would leave on Fridays the Boston South Station in the late afternoon and reach its terminus in Hyannis after stopping at some of the smaller stops. The trains, which depart from Boston early Saturday or Sunday morning, while driving without stopping at the station Middleborough / Lakeville and then Buzzards Bay to Hyannis. Trains in the direction of Boston leave Hyannis each early on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening. In addition, the Cape flyer on Memorial Day, the U.S. national holiday on July 4th and Labor Day travels.

The average travel time is given as about 2.5 hours - due to speed limits on parts of the route, the train ride in some areas with a maximum of 30 mph ( 48.3 km / h ). With commercial success of the train, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has already announced that the route expand so that the train can drive consistently faster. Funding for this are generally available.

Connections

In Hyannis is available via the link to the local bus of the CCRTA an indirect connection to the ferry terminal of Hy - Line Cruises, drive from where ferries to Nantucket.

In Buzzards Bay Shuttle buses connect the station to the ferry terminal to the Steamship Authority in Woods Hole, where there is a connection to Martha 's Vineyard.

Finances

The operating costs of the train to be covered mainly by ticket sales and other revenues on board. According to the CCRTA 700 passengers are required per week to reap no losses. As a one-time cost incurred for the repair of the track (renewal of the tracks, signals and railway sleepers, modernization of railway stations in Buzzards Bay and Hyannis well as repairs to crossings) total $ 3.4 million.

Services

On board, a free Wi-Fi access and other benefits offered.

List of stops

The Cape Flyer stops at the following stations:

Use of distance over time

The last train used at scheduled Hyannis left toward Boston on June 30, 1959 17:34 clock after the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad had ceased operations the Old Colony Lines. Until that time, trains such as The Cranberry, The Sand Dune or The Buttermilk Bay drove regularly on this route. The operation to Provincetown has already been set in 1941.

There was meanwhile repeatedly efforts to successfully operate passenger trains between Boston and Cape Cod. So negotiated among others, the then owner of the routes Penn Central in 1974 with local and state authorities to resume operation. To use the route at least for rail freight, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1976 bought the remaining routes on Cape Cod

In the summer of 1979 a passenger train between Hyannis, Buzzards Bay, Falmouth was a week tentatively inserted after the tracks had been repaired. Politicians hoped that a new control operation no later than 1981 - but in fact, the operation never got beyond this trial week. In the summer months, the years 1984 to 1988, the Cape Cod and Hyannis Railroad ran a passenger train between Braintree and Cape Cod and promoted with this last 89,000 passengers per year.

In February 1989, the railway company had to cease operations despite the success, as a result of that state financial crisis, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation had to stop subsidizing the route. From 1986 to 1996, Amtrak operated a commonly known as the Cape Codder passenger train, the DC from the Washington Union Station in Washington, or drove up from New York Pennsylvania Station in New York City to Hyannis. Here, the train between Attleboro and Taunton took a route that was formerly part of the Taunton Branch Railroad. To get from Hyannis to Boston, the passengers had at the Providence station in Providence (Rhode Iceland ) on the Providence / Stoughton Line of the MBTA or change the Northeast Regional Amtrak.

In spring 2011, a consulting firm from the CCRTA received the order, " [ physical and others] obstacles and financing options in connection with a revival of rail passenger transport to Cape Cod " to investigate. The start of operations was already planned for 2012, but was postponed to 2013 in order to counteract the impression that the new train could further strengthen the financial problems of the MBTA.